Objective
There are 600,000 beekeepers in the European sector, mainly SME family-owned companies. The revenue generated by this industry is more than €400M in Europe. However, the European Union has a net negative trade-balance in bee products, mainly honey, producing only 54% of its demand (the EU imports from cheaper producers, namely Argentina and China). However, despite its importance and the obvious potential for growth, serious problems face the sector. Bee populations and beekeepers numbers in Europe have been falling at an alarming rate. Honey imports to the EU have risen by 20% since 2001. Action to halt the decline in the European beekeeping sector is also urgently needed because bees also play a vital role in agricultural productivity. The role of bees as a pollinator remains the most important economic contribution, far outweighing the collective importance of all hive products. The economic value of pollination worldwide is estimated to be at least €153 billion, which represented 9.5% of the value of the world agricultural production used for human food in 2005. More than 70% of food crops and 35% of food production still depend on pollinators; 84% of vegetables grown in Europe depend on pollination.
Our project will develop the first monitoring tool that would detect changes in honey bee activity within the beehive for the effective management of bees. Changes in the activity within the hive will indicate early signs of potential swarming and possible poor health, so the beekeeper can intervene to manage the colony. The tool will allow beekeepers to remotely diagnose colony status without the invasive opening of hives for physical inspection.
This will increase the efficiency of beekeeping allowing small and hobby beekeepers to more closely manage their colonies and predict behaviour that requires intervention remotely, and will allow commercial beekeepers to keep more hives over greater geographical distances so increasing their efficiency and profitability.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- natural sciences biological sciences zoology entomology apidology
- social sciences economics and business economics production economics productivity
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture horticulture vegetable growing
- agricultural sciences animal and dairy science apiculture
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
FP7-SME-2012
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
SO40 8FH SOUTHAMPTON HAMPSHIRE
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.